Garlic gopchang near Daerim Station, Seoul, grilled tableside

Today's post is a review of Gimga-ne Gopchang Gui Daerim Station Main Branch, a gopchang (grilled beef intestine) restaurant near Daerim Station!

16 years grilling gopchang in the same spot — Gimga-ne Gopchang Gui Daerim Station Main Branch, a gopchang restaurant near Daerim Station

Gimga-ne Gopchang Gui Daerim Station Main Branch: the basics

• Location: 93 Dorim-ro, 1st floor, Guro-gu, Seoul (148-10 Guro-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul)
• Hours: Daily 14:00–24:00 (closes early once gopchang sells out)
• Parking: 2 spots in front, alley beside the restaurant / parking support with Guroli Park underground public lot (160m)
• Facilities and services: reservations, groups welcome (minimum 4, up to 60 people), takeout, Wi-Fi, mobile pay, regional currency (paper and card), Zero Pay, Guro Love Gift Certificate
• Notes: no pets, no corkage

The exterior and how to get there

I'd been craving gopchang for a while and searched around for ages trying to decide where to go. This place had a lot of reviews and a high rating, so I thought "this is it" and headed to Gimga-ne Gopchang Gui Daerim Station Main Branch.

It's a 3-minute walk from Daerim Station Exit 1.

You can also come out Exit 12, or walk from Line 7 Namguro Station Exit 1 or Line 2 Guro Digital Complex Station Exit 5 — an easy walk if you're heading over after work from the Gudi area! The second floor of the building is a Chinese-style pub, and the alley around it is full of Chinese-language signs.

They're open from 2pm to midnight, so it's a good spot for either a first or second round. That said, they can close early once the gopchang runs out, so if you're planning to go late, I'd recommend calling ahead.

I didn't know this, but apparently it's featured on the show "Don-jjul-nae-reo-wat-seum-ni-da" (a Korean TV show that supports struggling small businesses)?! No wonder customers kept steadily coming in even on a weekend..!

Inside the restaurant: seating and the weekend 7pm mood

I visited around 7pm. There are about 13 round tables and about 2 floor-seating tables inside. The tables are drum cans with a grill plate built into the center, and even the stools are drum cans — it looks every bit the old-school gopchang joint it is.

What struck me was the mix of customers — being near Daerim Station, there were a lot of Chinese customers. Korean customers too, roughly half and half.

A place featured on TV that locals still keep coming back to steadily — that's a pretty reassuring sign for a gopchang restaurant haha.

Maybe that's why there are UnionPay, JCB, and even Amex stickers at the entrance. Zero Pay and the Guro Love Gift Certificate work too. No payment worries even if you're coming with a foreign friend.

Just inside the door there was a sign about the restroom too.

The restroom is outside the restaurant, so it might be a bit of a hassle on rainy days or in winter.

I also checked the country-of-origin board. Gopchang, daechang, makchang, byeolyang, heart, liver, and tripe are all domestic beef, the pork belly is domestic pork, the rice is domestic too — only the baechu kimchi is Chinese cabbage.

Using domestic organs across the board definitely gave me more confidence in the place!

Menu and ordering: the limited-quantity garlic gopchang

We ordered two servings of garlic gopchang (₩29,000 × 2). It's sold in limited quantity, so going late means you might miss out — but at 7pm on a weekend it was still available.

There's a guide on the wall for how to eat gopchang the tasty way, so you can just follow along!

For reference, there's a Naver receipt review event posted on the table. Scan the QR code, leave a review with a photo, show it to staff, and you get soju, beer, or Hangang ramen as a free extra. (Once per table, photo required.)

I didn't take part this time, but with soju going for ₩5,000 these days, joining the review event for a freebie — and maybe going for the monthly "Best Reviewer" title too — sounds worth it!

Side dishes go all the way to liver and tripe, plus two sauces

The side dishes are liver, tripe, dongchimi (watery radish kimchi), vegetables (garlic, carrot, green chili), ssamjang (seasoned soybean paste), and pickled radish.

Liver and tripe come as standard side dishes, which anyone who loves those will be happy to see included.

There are two sauces: a tangy sauce with cheongyang chili in it, and a salt-oil dip.

Pre-grilled, then finished tableside by an ajumma

Here, all the gopchang comes pre-cooked once already. An ajumma (older woman working the floor) grills it plate by plate at an empty table nearby, cuts it into bite-size pieces with scissors, and tops it with a chive salad before serving.

Every time I eat gopchang I'm the type to hover my chopsticks going "is this cooked through?" — but here you just eat as soon as it arrives. No one has to hold the tongs the whole time either, so it was great for actually talking with my group while eating.

Garlic gopchang (250g per serving, ₩29,000) × 2 servings. Chive salad and a bit of heart in the middle, gopchang around the edge, with garlic, onion, enoki mushrooms, and potato tucked in between.

Garlic gopchang: how strong was the gaminess?

The garlic gopchang has whole cloves of garlic stuffed inside the intestine. Looking at the cut cross-section, you can see the garlic sitting right in there.

It was packed generously with fat too, and maybe because of the garlic, the gaminess was much lighter than regular gopchang.

If you're sensitive to the gamey smell of gopchang, I'd recommend the garlic gopchang!

Paired with the chive salad that came alongside, it cut the greasiness just right.

Honestly, I'm usually someone who can't eat much gopchang because it feels too greasy. But maybe because it's garlic gopchang, I finished it all here without getting tired of it.

We ordered a can of Chilsung Cider (₩2,000) partway through and split it — good for cutting through the greasiness.

(Skipped alcohol since I had work the next day...)

Finishing with kimchi fried rice, ₩3,000

After finishing the gopchang, we ordered kimchi fried rice (₩3,000) on top. Here they clear away the used grill plate and bring out a fresh one with oil, then the kitchen stir-fries it and serves it already finished.

It comes topped generously with seaweed flakes. The rice sticks slightly to the bottom of the plate, and eating it like nurungji (crispy scorched rice) is genuinely delicious.

I also mashed up the potato I'd set aside earlier while eating the gopchang and mixed it into the fried rice — the fluffy potato made it even better.

For ₩3,000 the portion is generous, and it fills you up with carbs at the end just right~! (There was also self-serve Hangang ramen, but I held back for diet reasons.)

Wrap-up: who is this good for

Having the ajumma grill everything makes it easy, and the garlic gopchang has noticeably less gaminess, so even people who normally can't handle gopchang well should be able to eat comfortably here. Liver and tripe coming as standard side dishes will also be a nice touch for gopchang lovers. Next time I go, I want to try the plain gopchang and the mixed platter too!

Recommended!

• Anyone sensitive to the gamey smell of gopchang
• Anyone who wants to eat without hassle (thanks to the grilling service)
• Anyone who loves liver and tripe
• Anyone looking for a group dinner spot near Daerim Station, Guro, or Gudi
• Anyone looking for a gopchang restaurant open late